It’s no secret that the quality of the client brief is in decline.

In part, this is due to exceptionally busy marketing chiefs not having the time required to properly brief all the team members and marketing firms for every project under their direction.

However, it is the agency’s job to ensure the project assignment is focused on the right objectives – and this starts at the outset of the assignment.

Unfortunately, many agencies take a poorly crafted client request or brief and guess what the senior decision maker genuinely wants, only to end up completely off the mark. The agency doesn’t discover they’re off in the wrong direction until it’s too late, often at the client presentation. In addition to a dissatisfied client, agency resources have been completely wasted in multiple rounds of work.

Too many client briefs inadvertently sink agencies. Simply put, the agency is not aligned with the client.

Here is a simple guide to provide a basic framework with which to kick off all client projects: 6 questions, 15 minutes. This is used well before you craft any strategy brief. In fact, it should be completed within 24 – 48 hours of receiving every client assignment.

Your team will collect a basic set of information before beginning their work. The information should be collected from the client, documented by the account lead, and approved by the client. At this point, with a laser focus on the client’s category-specific business objectives and an efficient use of agency resources, the team can begin working on the assignment.

This simple approach will help save you hours of wasted work, while getting you on the path for delivering a more effective assignment that makes an impact for your clients.

Keep your Project Kick-Off Briefs focused and on a single page. Customize what we have below as necessary.

  1. Assignment: What is the situation? What has the client asked us to do? Who is the client final decision maker?
  2. Objectives: Specifically, what do we need to accomplish? How will success be measured against category-specific KPIs? (Note: the specificity of these objectives may sometimes need to be clarified further into the project. Ask strategic questions and elevate client briefings for a clear understanding of measurable business objectives where your agency needs to make an impact.)
  3. Key Deliverables: More specifically, what do we need to provide the client?
  4. Budget: What is the budget they’ve provided us? Does this include/exclude media and production?
  5. Timeline: When is the strategy, execution, and rollout due?
  6. Notes: Is there anything else critical the team should know at this point?

Only once the client has signed off, does any work begin.